By Cliff Rold
In a card touched by thrills, shocks, and a touch of melancholy, 29-year old Shaun George (17-2-2, 8 KO) of Brooklyn, New York upset the Light Heavyweight return of 37-year old former IBF Heavyweight titlist Chris Byrd (40-5-1, 21 KO) of Flint, Michigan with a dominant ninth-round stoppage at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight was never really close.
George came out early looking to test Byrd, using his left jab to open up rights upstairs and down. With little more than a slow, slapping right hand of his own, Byrd ate a right with about a minute to go in the round that clearly wobbled him. Moments later, another hard right hand dropped Byrd onto the seat of his trunks and, though he rose quickly, he headed to the corner at the closing bell a clearly dazed man. After years of slipping shots from much slower, if larger men, the speed at Light Heavyweight appeared overwhelming.
George did not press the advantage immediately in the second, choosing to circle to his right and wait for openings. When they came, his right hand behaved as if attached to a laser sight, sizzling through the open gloved high defense of Byrd. Signs of life from the southpaw former Heavyweight titlist would come early in the third in the form of some snappier right jabs, better head movement and even some long lefts. Regardless, the underdog was still clearly landing the harder blows even if they came further and further apart.
It was not until the fourth that Byrd may finally have had a case for a victorious frame. Inexplicably, George’s punch output dropped even further and, when he did let a right go, Byrd’s palm defense deflected them. Byrd didn’t do much more, but he did land the bulk of the blows.
George got back on the offensive in the fifth, just missing a left uppercut before landing a right hand against a leaning Byrd. Bouncing on his toes, even turning his back and walking away, George dictated the pace, fighting when he wanted to and leaving Byrd to do little more than wave George in with the hopes of a turnaround counter. Byrd landed some scoring rights to open the sixth and continued to move his hands as the seconds ticked by. Adding in some rights and lefts to the body, and again defending successfully against George’s right, Byrd made the sixth his best statement of the fight.
Byrd maintained a building momentum in the seventh, dipping to his left and keeping the glove on that side firmly planted to his chin while finding openings for rangy rights to the head and body. George responded in the eighth after taking some initial rights and a hard left, firing his right and even mixing in a left hook. In the final minute, Byrd pressed with lefts and rights but George waited patiently in the pocket and let go with telling counters to seize at least a two point advantage heading into the final two rounds.
He didn’t need the judge’s cards.
In the ninth, a flush right hand caught Byrd on the chin, reverberating down his body as his left leg collapsed behind his body and he toppled over badly on his side. With the courage that has marked his career, Byrd rose a clearly defeated man, coming forward to eat a right hand, then left hook that sent him spinning head first into the corner. Rolling his body along the ropes, Byrd forced himself up again as referee Jay Nady came in to issue the standing eight-count even without Byrd going down. Byrd mouthed to Nady, “Stop it” and then repeated the same. Nady obliged him, allowing the noble old warrior the dignity of calling his own end at 2:45 of the ninth.
The bout likely brings an end to the career of Byrd, a 1992 Olympic Middleweight who faced most of the best Heavyweights of his time but who has now been stopped in three of his last four. For George, it provides a signature win in a wide-open and star studded field that looks a lot like Byrd: older, probably slower, and vulnerable to a fresh new face.
It wasn’t the only excitement on hand.
While it wasn’t quite on the classic level of Barkley-Benn or Meza-Garza, Jr. Lightweights Ji-Hoon Kim and Koba Gogaladze got together in the televised swing bout for one of Boxing’s rarest treats: a sensational one-round fight. The 21-year Korean Kim (14-5, 11 KO) came out slinging against his more experienced foe right away, backing the 35-year old Georgian-born Philadelphian Gogaladze (20-3, 8 KO) into the ropes.
The southpaw Gogaladze would quickly turn the tide, taking the fight to mid-ring and then exerting his will behind a seasoned right jab. He stunned Kim with a series of lefts, backing the younger man to the ropes, creating the appearance that his experience would soon equal complete control. Kim had other ideas. Just inches from the ropes, Kim let loose a left hook, and equally significant hard left shoulder on the follow through, to drop an onrushing Gogaladze. The veteran rose on shaky legs and moments later would eat a right-left hook combination that would see slump against the ropes as the referee stepped in to save him further punishment. The time of the stoppage 2:27 of the first, but the action was enough for at least nine more.
The televised opener was equally pleasing, a six-round shootout between undefeated Jr. Welterweight prospects who both left a positive impression. A right hook and follow-up barrage at the end of the first placed the bout firmly in the control of 24-year old Russian Ruslan Provodnikov (8-0, 6 KO), but that never stopped Brian Gordon (4-1, 4 KO) of Barstow, California from trying. Gordon survived some brutally effective offense throughout the first five to even stun his man in the final round with a hard right of his own, but Provodnikov’s body attack was the difference by unanimous scores of 59-55, 58-56, 60-54.
The card was televised live on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
